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<h1>What is Ghostscript?</h1>

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<p>
There are various different products in the Ghostscript family; this document
attempts to explain what they are, and how they are related.

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<h2>Table of contents</h2>

<blockquote><ul>
<li><a href="#Ghostscript">What is Ghostscript?</a>
<li><a href="#GhostPDF">What is GhostPDF?</a>
<li><a href="#GhostPCL">What is GhostPCL?</a>
<li><a href="#GhostXPS">What is GhostXPS?</a>
<li><a href="#GhostSVG">What is GhostSVG?</a>
<li><a href="#GhostPDL">What is GhostPDL?</a>
<li><a href="#MuPDF">What is MuPDF?</a>
<li><a href="#MuXPS">What is MuXPS?</a>
</ul></blockquote>

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<h2><a name="Ghostscript"></a>What is Ghostscript?</h2>

<p>Ghostscript is an interpreter for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript">PostScript</a><a href="#foot1">&trade;</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format">Portable Document Format</a>
(PDF) files. It is available both under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU GPL Affero license</a>
and for <a href="http://www.artifex.com/page/licensing-information.html">commercial licensing</a>
from <a href="http://www.artifex.com.">Artifex</a>. It has been under active
development for over 20 years and has been ported to many different systems
during this time.

<p>Ghostscript consists of a PostScript interpreter layer, and a graphics
library. Sometimes the Ghostscript graphics library is confusingly also referred
to simply as Ghostscript. Even more confusingly, sometimes people say Ghostscript
when they really mean GhostPDL.

<p>Binaries for Ghostscript for various systems can be downloaded from
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>. The
source code is included in both the Ghostscript and GhostPDL downloads from
the same site.

<h2><a name="GhostPDF"></a>What is GhostPDF?</h2>

<p>GhostPDF is an interpreter built on top of Ghostscript that handles PDF files.
Currently GhostPDF relies on extensions to the PostScript language/imaging model,
and so cannot be used independently of the Ghostscript PostScript interpreter
component. As such GhostPDF is an umbrella term used to refer to both these
extensions and the interpreter code.

<p>Many people (including the authors) frequently just refer to Ghostscript
as supporting PDF and only specifically mention GhostPDF when wanting to make
the distinction between the PostScript and PDF support.

<p>GhostPDF is included in the Ghostscript binaries for various systems available
from <a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>.
The source can be found in both the Ghostscript and GhostPDL downloads from
the same site.

<h2><a name="GhostPCL"></a>What is GhostPCL?</h2>

<p>GhostPCL is an interpreter for PCL<a href="#foot2">&trade;</a> and PXL files. This consists of an
PCL/PXL interpreter hooked up to the Ghostscript graphics library.

<p>GhostPCL is available both under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU Affero GPL license</a>
and for <a href="http://www.artifex.com/page/licesnsing-information.html">commercial licensing</a>
from <a href="http://www.artifex.com">Artifex</a>.

<p>Binaries for GhostPCL for various systems can be downloaded from
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>. The
source can be found in the GhostPCL/GhostPDL downloads from the same site.

<h2><a name="GhostXPS"></a>What is GhostXPS?</h2>

<p>GhostXPS is an interpreter for XPS (XML Paper Specfication) files. This
consists of an XPS interpreter hooked up to the Ghostscript graphics library.

<p>GhostXPS is available both under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU Affero GPL license</a>
and for <a href="http://www.artifex.com/page/licesnsing-information.html">commercial licensing</a>
from <a href="http://www.artifex.com">Artifex</a>.

<p>Binaries for GhostXPS for various systems can be downloaded from
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>. The
source can be found in the GhostXPS/GhostPDL downloads from the same site.

<h2><a name="GhostSVG"></a>What is GhostSVG?</h2>

<p>GhostSVG is an interpreter for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files. This
consists of an SVG interpreter hooked up to the Ghostscript graphics library.
This project has acheived proof of concept, but is not actively being worked
on.

<p>GhostSVG is available both under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU Affero GPL license</a>
and for <a href="http://www.artifex.com/page/licesnsing-information.html">commercial licensing</a>
from <a href="http://www.artifex.com">Artifex</a>.

<p>The source code for GhostSVG can be found in the GhostPDL archives on
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>.

<h2><a name="GhostPDL"></a>What is GhostPDL?</h2>

<p>GhostPDL (Ghost Page Description Languages) is an umbrella term for all
the above technologies. As all the above interpreters are built upon a
single graphics library, there are size and portability benefits to using
two of more of the languages in a given project. A product that
includes more than one such language in a single binary and automatically
chooses between them is sometimes referred to as a "Language Switch" build.

<p>GhostPDL is available both under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU Affero GPL license</a>
and for <a href="http://www.artifex.com/page/licesnsing-information.html">commercial licensing</a>
from <a href="http://www.artifex.com">Artifex</a>.

<p>The source code for GhostPDL can be found on
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>.

<h2><a name="MuPDF"></a>What is MuPDF?</h2>

<p>MuPDF is an alternative PDF viewer/library also written by some of the
Ghostscript developers and licensed under the same dual
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html">GNU Affero GPL</a>/
<a href="http://www.artifex.com/page/licesnsing-information.html">commercial license scheme</a>
by <a href="http://www.artifex.com">Artifex</a>.

<p>Like Ghostscript, MuPDF consists both of an interpreter and a graphics
library (sometimes called 'Fitz'). The name MuPDF is used both to
refer to the PDF interpreter/viewer, the associated tools for manipulating
PDF files and to the package of MuPDF and MuXPS together.

<p>MuPDF itself supports only PDF, not PostScript, and none of the
Ghostscript PostScript/PDF interpreter code is shared with MuPDF (except
for certain self-contained decoder libraries, such as JBig2Dec).

<p>Binaries for MuPDF for various systems can be downloaded from
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>. The
source can be found on the same site.

<h2><a name="MuXPS"></a>What is MuXPS?</h2>

<p>MuXPS is an XPS viewer/library, developed from the GhostXPS interpreter
and the MuPDF graphics library. MuXPS is distributed as part of the MuXPS
bundle, but can be separated from the PDF interpreter component of MuPDF
if required.

<p>Binaries for MuXPS for various systems can be downloaded as part of the MuPDF
distributions from
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/download">www.ghostscript.com/download</a>. The
source can be found on the same site.

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<p><a name="foot1">PostScript</a> is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc.
<p><a name="foot2">PCL</a> is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.
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<p>
<small>Copyright &copy; 2000-2012 Artifex Software, Inc.  All rights reserved.</small>

<p>
This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or
implied.

This software is distributed under license and may not be copied, modified
or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms of that
license.  Refer to licensing information at http://www.artifex.com/
or contact Artifex Software, Inc.,  7 Mt. Lassen Drive - Suite A-134,
San Rafael, CA  94903, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861, for further information.

<p>
<small>Ghostscript version 9.19, 23 March 2016

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